Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said there are enough funds for infrastructure projects under the ‘Build, Build, Build’ program of the Duterte administration after the government sealed concessional funding support last year with Japan, China, and South Korea.
“We are fortunate to have the full support from our friends in the region,” Dominguez said in a statement Monday.
“Both Japan and China have committed about $9 billion each in investments and official development assistance, while South Korea has pledged up to $1 billion in ODA under President Rodrigo Duterte’s term. These commitments complement the support we are getting from multilateral development institutions,” he said.
Dominguez said the magnitude of the ODA should be credited to President Duterte’s rebalancing of foreign policy.
He said with BBB projects gathering steam, infrastructure spending in the first 10 months of 2018 hit P665.1 billion, up by 50.3 percent or P222.5 billion compared to the same period last year.
Data showed that as of November 2018, 35 of the 75 infrastructure flagship projects have been approved by the Investment Coordination Committee and confirmed by the board of the National Economic and Development Authority. These projects have a total investment requirement of P1.54 trillion. Julito G. Rada
Dominguez said Package 1 of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law would help the government ensure a steady revenue stream for these projects.
Dominguez and Yoshio Wada, the chief representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, earlier signed a 104.53-billion-yen (P49.82 billion) loan for the Metro Manila Subway project, the Philippines’s first underground rail system.
The construction of the first phase of the Metro Manila Subway will stretch from Mindanao Ave. in Quezon City to the Food Terminal Inc. area in Taguig City and will continue to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
It will involve the construction of an underground railway spanning about 36 kilometers with 14 to 15 stations expected to be completed by 2025.